Chapter 12 Fallout
A/N- almost finished. Another twist and turn before I lay this one to rest, though. Reviews are welcome anytime, both favorable and otherwise – I know I tend to go against the flow. Maya, thanks again for the review. I did enjoy exploring the MutantX concept from the opponent's point of view. ************************************
"I could have saved her," Eckhart whispered still stunned that he had been turned out of the Net, unable to believe that she was gone, "but they wouldn't let me."
"What are you talking about, Mason?" Adam asked.
Eckhart fought to keep from screaming at him, "The Unity, oh, you wouldn't know would you? …The beings on the other side. …The universe that YOU had built a bridge to 20 years ago." Instead, he simply glared at Adam who stared pensively at him. It was this kind of information that kept him a step ahead of Adam.
Adam looked at the now young face of Dr. Jensen. "Who was she?"
Eckhart studied Adam's expression to see if he was serious and decided that he was. "An old friend that I had been trying to locate for years," he replied after a moment.
"Remarkable woman," Adam commented thoughtfully. "although I get the distinct impression that it hasn't been years since you last seen each other."
"It is exactly as I said, Adam." Eckhart replied.
"She somehow assimilated Ashlocke's soul that had been bound to Emma. She is a meta-morph, like Michelle, you saw how she transformed from an aged woman to the younger one that we see now, and then into Ashlocke's form. This is apparently her natural form." Adam's expression hardened. "And the IV drip just happened to overload her system with a neural inhibitor shortly after Ashlocke took over her body." Adam stared at Eckhart accusingly. "You were standing closest to her, Mason."
"What are you trying to say, Adam?" Eckhart asked calmly, his eyes glinted dangerously at the implied accusation. "And how do you happen to know the IV drip was loaded with a neural inhibitor?" The white-haired man asked menacingly.
Adam straightened, his dark eyes momentarily unfocused. It was as if a door had been opened in his mind for a brief second but now closed. The moment was gone now. " It's just an educated guess, Mason. I don't know for a fact what's in the IV. " He shook his head and looked away. The white-haired man watched him intently, like a cat studying a mouse and Adam's team-mates shifted uncomfortably. Adam signaled for them to leave him alone with Eckhart. He would question them later about the dark-haired, green-eyed beauty. He was sure that she was a computer anomaly, and that together, they would figure out how she was generated, retrieve and analyze the transmissions later. "I'll be fine," he assured them. They obeyed, casting backward glances as they left. Emma waited a moment and touched his arm gently before she joined the others.
Adam remembered something. "What do you know of Sparky?" he asked Eckhart.
"So THEY don't know about Sparky?" Mason Eckhart asked nodding toward the departing Mutant X. "Strange that you should keep secrets from your own people, Adam. Don't you trust them?" Adam cringed internally. So Eckhart did know something about Sanctuary's secret security code! One of the emergency medical team pumped them for information about the circumstances concerning Natalia's death. Eckhart sternly reprimanded the staff for shoddy care. "I want her blood tested," he said, "and the name of her attending physician-all in charge of her care. If the cause of her death was natural, so be it, but if it was accidental, so help you…."
"You mentioned that name in your last communication to me from the old Genomex pseuver and less recently in your rantings while you were hospitalized." Adam replied.
Eckhart gave him a guarded look. "You're the genius, Adam. You figure it out."
Adam studied his adversary coldly, regretting the fact that he had ever brought him out of the stasis pod, hating himself for needing him.
"Knowing you, Mason, you probably arranged this woman's death." Adam goaded him. Eckhart ignored him. A couple orderlies prepared to move Dr. Jensen's body out of the room. Eckhart raised a hand and they paused. He pulled the sheet off the woman's face and looked down at her. Her expression was relaxed, her eyes slightly open. Eckhart cupped the cold face in his hands, willing her to wake up. His eyes were dry and expressionless for Adam's benefit. Outwardly, he was a model of self control but inwardly, he raged at the powers that be for taking her away from him…..
"Marlina, Aararaiah" Eckhart breathed silently and fervently into the ether, "I will hunt you down and find you. And when I do, you will wish you had never existed."
